As Ally’s long-suffering wife, Ivy Mayfair-Richards has to have a lot of patience. Dealing with all her phobias and freak outs can’t be easy. Ivy’s already comforted her through her election night trauma and her subsequent months of seeing clowns appear in the couple’s home, restaurant or at the supermarket. With her bringing Ally’s therapist round to the house unannounced, it seems her patience is beginning to wear a little thin.

But is Ally’s slow descent into madness actually what Ivy wants? There’s a theory, as discussed by fans on Twitter and Reddit, that suggests she could already be a part of the titular cult and is using it and its network to fuck with her wife until she can get a divorce and sole custody of Oz. Quite why she would want to do that (apart from a quiet and peaceful life) has yet to be really revealed, but it would at the very least explain why Ally seems to be the one the cult is targeting.

Ivy is conveniently always missing when these clowns show up. 🤔 #AHSCult

The only time Ivy has been around when Ally sees the clowns is at the restaurant, but even then she’s out in the kitchen and her wife is in the dining room. Her absence is vital – if she’s around when Ally sees any of the masked gang, she can no longer convince her she’s seeing things. In this episode, the alarm at the restaurant goes off just as the couple are about to go to bed. Ally’s feeling guilty about being such a burden so offers to go and sort it out herself. Unfortunately for her, when she gets there she finds the restaurant’s chef hanging from a meat hook. Could, as one Reddit user suggests, Ivy have set the alarm off herself from her phone? Is the notification she receives actually a message from the cult confirming the setup is ready?

Then there’s the fact Ivy sends her employee Pedro round to the house when the power cuts out. Pedro is the main suspect in the chef’s murder after the pair had a fight earlier in the day. Ally knows this, so seeing him turn up at her door when she’s already in a state of panic likely isn’t going to end well – and it doesn’t. She’s been keeping the gun she got from Harrison Wilton a secret from Ivy, but if Ivy is already in the cult with their new neighbours, chances are she already knows about the weapon. Sending Pedro to the house could be all part of her evil plan to destroy Ally. After all, from everything we’ve seen so far, she’s not likely to cope with accidentally murdering a longtime friend and employee very well.

Ivy thinks she so slick sending that guy over with some salt and pepper like we don't know her end game #AHSCult